Find Prospects in the iGaming
As you already know without affiliates your project is pretty much doomed or at least very limited in terms of growth. Here we will help you understand how to go deep in the research of the key traffic source types and how to ensure your portfolio development.
Content
1. How to do market research to identify prospects
2. Research for different traffic types
3. iGaming Affiliate Conferences
4. Sharing is caring, work with referrals
Part 1
How to do market research to identify prospects
Based on the country you will have a different portfolio of affiliates, thus you must always be focused on one country at a time. The way to expand your prospect list is by covering as many as possible traffic sources.
Easiest way to generate prospects
Nowadays the easiest way to generate prospects is through the shortcuts. There are many tools and softwares that can help you generate leads quickly and efficiently without much of a manual work. Be aware that there is no perfect software for this, each of them will hit maximum 90% accuracy and even lower in some more exotic countries. Also the smaller the affiliate the bigger the chance of providing you with misleading data.
Quantity matters
Like it or not the odds of converting a prospect into an active affiliate are super low. Following that, quantity really matters here. The more affiliates you contact the higher the chance of signing some of them. Then the domino effect starts, step by step the more affiliates see your brand around the higher the chance of convincing them to promote you. This is why it’s not only important to get listed within the affiliate site but also to gain decent exposure. Top spots serve as a guarantee that your brand converts and retains well.
Systematic approach
Never jump from a market to market, focus on one at a time and be strict with the execution. Business is changing very dynamically, what’s relevant today may not be tomorrow. That’s why we always suggest to be focused while doing your research and to not get distracted. You don’t want to forget your progress or to miss a prospect. Start with one country and traffic source, then move to the next type of a traffic source and only when you finish all of them, you can move to the next market.
Part 2
Research for different traffic types
As mentioned above the way to scale is to go for all types of traffic sources. Never skip a source, it could be with lower volumes or value but in this industry diversification is very important. Due to changes in the regulation we’ve seen the downfall of many traffic sources and affiliates.
Identify SEO Prospect
By far the easiest to research and probably the one with the best ROI%. SEO affiliates are essential for every portfolio and are a great source for the startup businesses. There are many tools that can help you generate hundreds of prospects instantly. But, to maximise your outcome you should make sure to cover a wide variety of researching strategies.
Main Keywords research
These are the most common phrases the user searches for and are usually with the highest volumes. For example: Online Casinos, Sportsbooks, Best Online Casinos and so on.
Long tail Keywords and niche researches
It’s important to focus on the smaller keywords as they usually bring very high value due to the deep intention of the user that is looking for them. The combinations here are countless but some that we always do are: Live Casino Roulette, Casinos with cashback, “Use local Payment Method name” plus the Casino word.
Branded Research
One of the best ways to scatter some great sites is by using your competitors’ names. You can directly search for Brand Name plus Casino and you will see every website where your competitors are advertising more or less.
Recommended Tools you can use:
Those tools are easy to manipulate and are not 100% accurate. However, it gives you a good idea of the website potential as well as it saves you a lot of manual work.
Finding PPC Affiliates
Hard to find and even harder to reach out to. Most of them are not providing any leads as who stands behind the website which makes it really hard to reach out. On top of that, you must bypass google and the PPC security layers to manage to even get in the search results the paid ads. Luckily there are tools that will do that for you!
Humbl.ai
The golden standard for PPC researches! Offering you not only the list of the advertisers but also access to the top brands in their list as well as the positions each brand had over the time with the publisher.
Casino Streamers
Majority of the streaming is related to Casino and Live Casino due to the regulations. You must identify what’s the most popular streaming platform in your market but we advise you to research all available ones. Each platform has it’s own websites that rank and provide detailed information about the streamer activities. How long they’ve been streaming, how many visitors they get and so on. Through these platforms you can easily get all the profiles that you should target.
Popular platforms are:
Part 3
iGaming Affiliate Conferences
One of the best ways to get prospects is through connections and networking. Of course face to face conversions are ideal for that manner and the Affiliate Conferences appear to be ideal places for that.
Best Conferences for Affiliates and Casinos
Keep in mind that conferences are not the same, each of them have different focus and priorities. However, the one that will be more suitable for affiliates are the following:
SIGMA
It’s known to be the one that pretty much the majority of the affiliates are attending. Till recently the Malta event was the biggest and most important one but since they are moving to Italy this year we can’t confirm yet that the trend will continue.
SBC
Mainly focused on the platform side and the B2B operations, SBC is growing a lot and attracting more and more affiliates every year. The atmosphere and the less stressed schedule allows you to have great conversations there and build strong relations.
ICE & iGB Barcelona
Amazing events that attract the big players in the industry as well as major players from alternative industry that are exploring the igaming world.
Strategy to find affiliates
When you end up at those conferences eventually, you will easily spot that operators use affiliate badges to enter for free there. This generates a big mess sadly. On top of that Affiliates hide their badges so people don’t always stop them. Overall it’s not an easy playground there. However, there are other ways to improve your chance of making good connections and here are our pro tips.
Don’t be ashamed of being a stalker
Find the booth of your competitors and keep an eye on the people who stay there longer. Follow them and make sure to reach out for a conversation.
The golden mine
Find Affiliate managers that target similar markets to you. Making a good connection with them, helping each other in the long term is a great way to find affiliates easily afterwards.
Should you invest in a booth?
As a startup, better don’t! As tempting as it may sound, it doesn’t work as well as you think. You will mainly attract abusers or affiliates that care about high volumes and low value. The best partners are not going to these events to find new operators but to see the existing one. Booth helps with the branding and to establish yourself as a trustworthy company. It’s ideal for midsize to large companies.
Part 4
Sharing is caring, work with referrals
The best way to get prospects and direct contacts is through referrals. As mentioned above, speak with your competitors and other affiliate managers. Exchange contacts and insides about the brands and markets you work with. Just keep in mind that reputation matters and you should always keep a clean and good profile, not only for your company but also for your team. Trust me on that one, this is the best, easiest and fastest way to grow a portfolio!